Guide for the New Writer
Hello, and thank you for being interested in joining the WorldBuildGuild project! Join the Discord server, if you have not already, for active discussion of the writing. This will be the manual to help bring new players up to date. The Mission The goal of this project is to collaboratively worldbuild an entire history for the world of Aursis, beginning in prehistory and a pure fantasy setting, to end in a science fiction setting in the distant future. Every two weeks the focus of writing moves a number of years further in history, determined by the complexity of the world at the time. For example early on, in the times of hunter-gatherers and the agricultural revolution, history is measured in the thousands of years, while in the times of colonialism and gunpowder empires entire countries could appear and vanish within a few decades. We try to keep the course of history relatively realistic, as in, if x happens y should follow. Every event has both a cause and an effect. The Setting The world that the writings of this project take place in is the world of Aursis. Aursis can be described as a medium-low fantasy setting, where fictional races exist, and magic affects the course of history, but the course of history is similar to own and there aren't any magical threats that pose existential threats. Magic users are only one in two hundred, learning spells takes years, and their effectiveness is limited by stamina. The magic system, and the system of enchanting objects, are elaborated on their own pages. Claiming System Those new to the subreddit get the choice of claiming a portion of land that will be their responsibility to write about. Most often people use the claim to develop a cultural or ethnic group that they will tell the history of, and how they affect the rest of the world. this is similar to being a nation in a worldpowers game, allowing people to write in the context of a larger world, except the goal is create an interesting history rather than competition. When you make a claim, keep in mind that the area of the claim should be roughly proportional to the amount you will write. If you claim an entire continent, you should be ready to write an entire continent's worth of history, which is generally out of the scope of most people. A smaller claim allows you to write an in depth history of a particular group, and they can always expand outwards over time. Ask in the discord about the areas of the continent, some places may be oversaturated with writers, while others may need a writer badly. Also keep in mind that the geography of the map is mostly consistent, so some places may be better for what you mean to write than others. When claiming, you may use this as a template for submission: * Name of the Group: * Location on Map: Draw a circle around the area on the map you wish to claim * Origins: A brief history of how this group came to be. It does not have to go further back in history than when the group first formed, no need to write about ancient migrations and lineages if you don't want to. Could be in the form of a story, myth, history narrative, or any other form. * Government: Write at least the general type of government, consider writing about: Structure, Hierarchy, Power dispersion, etc. * Culture: Write about kind of people in the claim, consider writing about: Economy, Social relations, Industry, Foreign relations, Technology, Religion, View of the world, Military, Language, Writing, etc. * Race(s): You must state what race your group is, everyone can write about humans by default, if you want to write about another already-existing race, talk with the creator. If you want to create your own race talk to the members and admins who will help balance your idea to make it fair and fit the tone of Aursis. New races require mod approval, and post detailing their main features. PM one of the mods for the specifics on what should be in the post. Ask for the claim in the discord where you should get a response relatively quickly, and if accepted submit a post detailing the claim with the claim flair so the mods can see it. Non Claim Writings You may also write about other places and people in the world without claiming a piece of land. In fact this is encouraged. We always need people to flesh out this or that bit of history, and fill in lands with varied people and governments. If you do write about an area not under claim however, do keep in mind that it must keep in tone of Aursis, and that someone may claim that bit in the future, although if that happens your writing will not be deleted, it just becomes part of history rather than a current influence on the present. As in if you write about a group of hunter-gatherers in an area and someone claims it, then you or the claimer will write about how the group was pushed out of the area. In addition to writing about other groups of people, there is always room for more lore and background information in the world. You can write about environments, magical flora and fauna, disasters that occured, significant figures that lived, religious myths, organizations that arose, magical items that were created, or any other thing that comes to mind. General Rules # Don't be rude: Respect other people's ideas. If ideas conflict then talk to a mod to settle the dispute. # Be Collaborative: Members should work together to write a history in a way that makes sense, and not try to destroy the work of others'. # Be Active: There aren't any deadlines but members should participate in discussions and in the world. If you are inactive for too long your claim may be removed, or given away, although normally the content you contributed would stay. Comment on the subreddit, talk to people about their ideas, and give constructive feedback when possible, it helps to better everyone's writing. # Follow Posting Rules: Do not spam small junk posts, make sure to flair your posts, and try to maintain some level of quality in your writing. Do not plagiarize # Talk to People: The idea is to collaboratively worldbuild, you can't do that if you don't talk to people. Talk on our discord, especially to those with the role of 'member' as they have been with us for a while and understand the tone of the world well. # Enjoy Yourself: Write about what you want to write! If you are not able to fit the specific thing you want to write about in the setting of Aursis, that is perfectly alright, put it in your own world! Much of the format of this wiki was inspired by the wiki of the Createthisworld collaborative worldbuilding group.